Chapter 24

I can see the indecision in her blinking eyes. My regretfully spoken words have done their job; made her stop to consider. Now I just have to wait for her to buy my promise.

Though I've just told her that I would set her free, I have no intentions of going through with that.

“Really?” Her small breathy voice is laced with skepticism and singed with excitement at the prospect of freedom.

Poor thing, she doesn't have any idea what she's going to get herself into….

I allow a tentative smile to play on lips as I stare deep in her wide chocolaty eyes. “Yes, I'm going to set you free…. On some conditions.”

I slide the armchair a little closer to her and she flinches away. All the colour drains from her face. I think she's started to understand where I am going with this.

Good. The sooner she'll understand this, the better it'll be for me.

“If you are going to propose something like what Balthazar had done then you're wasting your time.” She bites out coldly, her eyes blazing up with a sudden ferocity.

I'm taken aback by the intensity in her glare. Woah…. Seems like I've stepped on a sensitive spot. But despite my shock, hope blooms inside my frozen heart. The heat in her eyes, that I've seen so rarely, is what I want.

I knew that I had chosen her for a reason and looking at her at this very moment, I know just what I had seen in her in Balthazar's basement. I can't mess this up again. I'd already made a huge mistake last night, by taking her here instead of following the standard procedure. I had come to the verge of losing her again, forever just a few moments ago.

Keep your head straight, Black.

I open my mouth to assure her that I won't make any inappropriate deal with her. But something else tumbles out of my mouth that has nothing to do with my plan. “What was Balthazar's proposal?”

She takes a shuddering breath and closes her eyes for a full minute as though she's going through some inner battle. “Balthazar had said that he would set me free if I did as he said…. After he had his way with me.”

My motion ceases as I process what she's just told me.

Slowly, she opens her eyes and turns to gaze at me, there's no emotion in her depthless eyes and no expression on her sweetheart face. “I don't know if you have any idea about the debt he'd faked to trick my parents get me but I'm telling you, I'm not falling for this bullshit again.”

I open my mouth then close it again; I'm speechless. I don't know how to handle this situation. I've dealt with abuse cases, family issues, past insecurities, vulnerability…. But I've never come across something like this.

Balthazar has broken the most quintessential part of my esclave's heart…. Trust. And the kind of relationship I want to have with her, it completely depends upon it.

Rage like I've never felt before, fills my veins as I see red. My hands start vibrating with the need to punch something or break a particular someone's neck. Balthazar is so dead.

My rein in my temper and turn my eyes to gaze at my esclave. A single tear escapes her eyes and rolls down her cheeks. I can feel the anguish of her past returning to torture her.

“Look at me, Esclave.” She obliges without any hesitation and my heart warms. “Balthazar will pay for what he has done to you. I give you my word. And I swear, I'll not even touch you, no matter how much I want to, unless and until you want me to.”

She searches my face with her glossy eyes then nods her head.

In that moment, I realise that I've already set her free against my previous determination, without letting her go physically…. And she has realised that too.

~~~~

After a short visit to the hospital, I take my esclave back to my house. Dr. Singh's words keep repeating inside my head as I drive us through the small forest that covers the area around the outside of the boundaries.

My little Esclave is out of the danger zone. There's no internal injury. The short-lived period was just a consequence.

Now I just have to think of a way to extract the drug from her body without any consequences. I don't know how long it takes to activate but I have to get it out of her system before it wipes out her memories and turns her into one of those dead goons of Balthazar.

Out of the corners of my eyes, I glance at my esclave and find her staring out of the window, lost somewhere in her own thoughts. I've never seen a girl brooding before. I used to think that only men do that. But my Esclave has proved this again that she's not like the usual broken slaves, she's unique. She might be a little bit damaged but she hasn't lost her true self.

Or maybe she just doesn't know how to do that.

Most girls, from what I've seen in my life, shed their true selves and depend on their natural instincts to deal with everything that happens to them. They think that they have hidden themselves in the depths of their heart and can reveal it whenever they see fit.

But what they don't understand is, when you're forced to go through the kind of situations which want you to act against your nature, those experiences change you for the most part. If you think that you can keep your true identity untainted from your present by locking it up in a dark corner, it might work, but then your natural self will be changed.

My esclave isn't one of those victims who don't accept their reality and live in their heads to stay blissfully ignorant, only to suffer even more when someone tries to bring them back out of their head and relieve them of those memories. I know that she understands that she can't do anything but wait. Wait for her time when she really has to take a chance and make a decision.

The fact that my esclave, unbeknowningly, understands everything so well, makes me feel so proud to know that she's mine, not literally but in a way.

I still can't believe that I'm thinking about manipulating her into staying with me here. But if I won't do that, she'll leave me and go back to those people who call themselves her "parents".

My temper rises instantly when I recall what she had told me back in the hotel. She thinks that her parents had been tricked by Balthazar. Huh, this only shows how naive and oblivious she is, even after going through all that shit.

Fury courses through my vessels and my grip tightens on the steering wheel. In my angry haze, I lose my focus and drive off of the highway.

“Woah! Where are you? We're going to hit the trees!?” My esclave screams at me, her voice filled with panic and concern.

I snap out of my angry trance with a sharp jolt but can't process anything quick enough. My shaking hands try to gain their control back as my foot searches for the brake.

Shit! Fuck!

Not right now. Not again.

When my foot touches a paddle I step on it. We start zooming forward at a frantic speed. Crap! I stepped on the gas. The car bounces on the uneven grassland as my hand keeps swinging side to side with the steering wheel. Up in front, I spot a huge tree and my eyes widen. We're heading straight towards it and there's no way I can turn around the car now.

We speed forward and crash right into the thick trunk of the tree.

I get slammed forward from the forceful impact of the collision and my forehead hits the steering wheel. Everything goes black just before I hear my esclave's loud screeches come to a full stop.